- U.S. Presidents
- Harry Potter Characters by number of references
- Shakespeare Plays
- Countries of the World (one day I will get all of them!)
- The Periodic Table
- Most common English words
- the list goes on forever, with new quizzes added every day
Would some people consider some of the knowledge required for these quizzes unnecessary? Do our students need to spend time taking quizzes on "Bugs in Song Lyrics" or "Name the Countries with the highest Sheep to Person ratio?" I'd argue that quizzes of seemingly random-as-you-can-get topics help our students to think outside the box in surprising ways. I tried doing the sheep to person ratio quiz and started thinking about geography of countries and economies where sheep herding might still be a profitable lifestyle just to see if I could get at least one answer. Some of these quizzes rely on multidisciplinary subjects do they not? A question that was posed to the class Thursday was this idea of "what goes on intellectually" with games and our students? These games test student knowledge on a variety of things with the extra incentive to finish before the time is up. They're low-stakes and obviously don't count for a grade. I think these games should be encouraged to test the factual knowledge we have stored in our brains..if not to let off a little steam on a quick fifteen minute break.
Hey Kelsey!
ReplyDeleteThis is such a good point...how did we all forget about Sporcle? I like how you were able to connect the quizzes with "not so relevant knowledge" back to what we talked about with the intellectual side of playing games. One memory I have of playing Sporcle is when the topic was popular company logos. It was surprising which ones were obvious to me or which ones I recognized but could put the name of the company to it. It was a real challenge to think about where I had last seen that symbol, what media I had seen it in, if I had ever owned anything with that logo, etc. I think the synthesis I had to go through to try and arrive at my goal is similar to the problem solving process we would want to see in our students thinking!
Hello Kelsey,
ReplyDeleteWay to reference Sporcle! I haven't played the game in over two years, but I remember when it was a common activity for me in high school and college. Anyway, I think the general question you pose about its utility is an important one. I interpreted it as along the lines of "What's the general utility and use of lots of factual knowledge?" The idea really got me thinking. I settled on the idea we learned in EDU 606 in the book Why Don't Students Like School. In chapter 3, Daniel Willingham states that the more factual knowledge a person has, the more they are to gain.
What he means by this idea is that factual knowledge is directly applied into a web of other interrelated factual knowledge. Therefore, I think its SUPER important that games like sporcle be used with our students to help them expand their factual knowledge base! I don't think that factual knowledge is the sole of focus we want to employ in our classrooms, but I do think that students need a comprehensive web of events, people, places, and ideas to activate their humanity and citizenship. In my opinion, that's where games like sporcle come in! Thanks for referencing this fun and enjoyable game. I certainly plan on bringing it to my students' attention!
I thought about looking at Sporcle too but I think the best use of it would be to borrow the quiz format in your classroom.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I once did this when I was teaching summer school in Louisville, KY. I wrote out the ABCs and then asked students to write all the vocabulary words from the reading unit we were doing that they could remember that started with each letter! So that aspect of remembering under time pressure can be fun and informative for students!
Cool blog! I wish I could have explored it more, but great job on upkeeping it all summer :)
Yay Sporcle! It's definitely worth mentioning. 2 Sporcle stories:
ReplyDelete1. I've definitely used knowledge gained from Sporcle outside of the computer. Granted, it was in a Harry Potter trivia contest, but still... The quiz makers had prepared a really intense game, and one of the final questions was to put 10 random characters in order from most to least mentions. So, taken directly from the quiz you mentioned! Luckily, my team had actually all taken that quiz as part of our studying (yes, we studied for this. It was intense), and I'm happy to say we won the contest. Thanks, Sporcle!
2. I'm also wondering if Sporcle is one of those games that builds foundational classroom skills. I'm thinking specifically here of test-taking skills. Most (or all?) of Sporkle quizzes are timed, so it creates that under-pressure scenario in a relatively low-risk environment. I'm wondering if we could use Sporcle as a way to get nervous test takers more comfortable before standardized tests?
Kelsey, I totally forgot about Sporcle! I remember this game from my days during middle and high school. One thing in particular I remember about the various quizzes is that you had to spell the word right in order to get it...and I can't spell worth a damn. lol I really enjoyed doing the quizzes that involved history, geography, and sports. I think this site could be very beneficial for students if used prior to starting a lesson, or just after finishing one. Students could compare their scores prior to learning the lesson and then take the same quiz after the lesson, and see how they improved. Using the site for much else would probably have to be looked into to a greater degree. Great post!
ReplyDelete